Of drawing, art and stuff like that
There, a post in English and written in the morning, before going to school. I'm not writing in English enough these days, probably because the people who read this LJ are mostly French people and not English-speaking ones, but... I'm an English teacher, dammit. XD
Although I haven't been drawing much since the beginning of March, due to having schoolwork to tackle first and foremost, I must say that art is still in my head, and that I have plenty of ideas that I doodle about now and then in the train or between classes. I like being in such a frame of mind. As I posted on dA a few days ago, it reminds me of my own high school days, when I drew crappy stuff, but drew it with glee and pleasure. I'm still convinced that my current style and level of skill are very far from being good (I mean, look at the amount of 18-year-old people who can already do better than yours truly), but this in itself is a good thing-it leaves room for improvement, after all, and what's life if we don't have to strive a little towards higher goals?
Of course, the downside is that with my mind full of ideas, focusing on anything else is hard, quite hard. Therefore it's also a pain. And buying books about drawing Fantasy characters and fighting scenes sure doesn't help in that regard. *rolleyes* But I'll survive. ;)
Sometimes, I wonder how things would've been for me had websites such as dA been around in 1995-1996 (provided I had had internet at home at the time, too). Would I have shared my drawings like I do now? Would I have been one of those teens with ugly art but who thought themselves the masters of the universe? Would I have been ashamed, shy, reluctant to show what I called my 'art' to anyone? I didn't have a problem showing it to my friends IRL, that is, especially when it featured their RP characters. (And do you know that I even drew our 'Amber' chars on four A4 sheets of paper to make a screen for our GM? Now that I remember this, I also remember that it was coloured in crappy colour pencils, and OMG, the horror! XD But hey, I had FUN drawing it!)
The answer is: I don't know. I honestly don't know. However, I somewhat regret that there was no choice for me at the time. I didn't miss it, since I didn't know it existed; it's just that now, with hindsight, I wonder if it'd have helped me improve faster, because I'd probably have been more dedicated to drawing back then than I was later on, during my "work life" (and not drawing very often *did* slow down my improvement, for sure).
Now all I can do is try to stay committed. I'll never be a great artist, but I can at least go on having fun and experimenting with new techniques & style elements. And that's all that matters to me right now. :o)
PS. I've just realized, too, that exactly one year ago, I was sitting for my first CAPES written exam. Yup. It was on March 11th, 2009. My, how time flies!
The most incredible thing is that I'd do that anytime again. I love preparing for competitive exams. It gives me such a sense of achievement...